Was re-watching the very end of Metal Fight (Metal Fury), and began noticing things. This was one of them. Extension of a shot in episode 154. Otherwise known as "look what Juniper comes up with when she has two weeks before lectures start again!"
Rise
He had never been so scared.
He had fought against dragons and wolves, had led the fight against the Darkness right from the beginning, had been a steady rock against the incoming tide that threatened destruction for the entire earth. He had survived cave-ins and avalanches, had recovered from setbacks and injuries that would have killed anyone else... he had survived loss of every sort, and was able to rise again, burning with the wings of the Phoenix.
But the man who had once been the wielder of Pegasus still knew fear, and the deepest of sorrows too.
He never knew more fear than when Gingka stepped forwards to pick up Pegasus from the edge of the smoking pit. In his mind's eye, he saw the shadow rising once again, saw his son's eyes darkened by night, knew he could never reach him in time to protect him, in time to save him. This time, as with almost every other time, he had not been able to step forwards and shield his son.
Against the monstrosity of Lightning L-Drago, he had known that he could not do anything, that only Pegasus could face the menacing dragon, but at least he had been close by, and might have been able to do something. At worst, he might have been able to sweep down as Phoenix and carry his child out of danger, even if it would mean the loss of Ryuga to the Darkness.
But when Tsubasa had turned to that same Darkness for strength and had brought stadiums crashing down with him?
When Gingka had fought so hard against Kyouya that he had collapsed?
When he had faced the hellish blade of Kerbecs and had been dragged under?
And now, when Nemesis had so, so nearly won?
Always he had been too far away, separated from his son during those moments when he wanted nothing more than to protect him. He might have been the Director of the biggest Beyblading company the world had ever seen, and he might have been the Immortal Phoenix who would rise from any storm, but in the mind of Ryo Hagane, the most important thing in his whole life was the red-haired teenager who was his only son.
He was the boy's father, and that was the greatest responsibility he had ever been given. From the moment when the tiny child had been placed, squirming, into his arms, Ryo had loved him with a ferocity that took his breath.
It was his right and his duty to do so, to love, to protect, to cherish and to teach the child who would one day surpass him. To rise to a challenge unlike any other, and keep getting up again regardless of what tried to destroy him because he was a man, he was a father, and he had to be there to pick his son up when he fell, no matter what his own feelings were.
That was why he never knew more sorrow than when Gingka's knees buckled beneath him and he fell face-down on the battlefield. Because Ryo knew right then that his son could never be the same.
He had fallen to the earth a child – but he would rise alone, a man.
I am growing very attached to Ryo Hagane. He deserves more attention.